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Camelot's 'Sunset Boulevard' ambitious, not as dark Comment By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 21, 2015 at 2:40 PM By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 21, 2015 at 2:40 PM » Social News Early on, the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" could almost be musical comedy. Unemployed screenwriter Joe Gillis, his pal Artie, budding writer Betty Schaefer and producer Sheldrake take a wry look at circa 1949 Hollywood in the chirpy ensemble number "Let's Have Lunch" ("gotta run!"). And in the ambitious new production that opened Friday night at Camelot Theatre, Joe's encounter with the heavies who are trying to repossess his car is a hoot. But that's all backstory. It's when Joe (Nathan Monks), trying to ditch the repo men, blunders onto the crumbling Sunset Boulevard estate of faded silent screen star Norma Desmond (Livia Genise) that the story begins. "You used to be in pictures,” Joe says. “You used to be big." Genise gets miles out of the next line, "I am big — it's the pictures that got small!" Norma, who lives alone except for her mysterious butler and chauffeur, Max (Mark Schneider), has written a preposterous film script in which she would star as the eponymous 16-year-old seductress in a Cecil B. DeMille film of the biblical story of Salome. Deep down she knows it's a mess in need of a script doctor. Joe, with no prospects at the moment, sees that the screenplay is hopeless, and there's easy money to be made if a guy isn't particular about stuff like ethics. Wilder's strategy was to create two predators, each seeking to use the other, and confine them to the claustrophobic environment of Norma's decaying estate like two scorpions in a jar. Joe's weakness fills him with contempt, and his self-loathing mixes with Norma's controlling histrionics to make the picture a classic noir. Starring Gloria Swanson as Norma and William Holden as Joe, it's widely considered one of the best films ever made about Hollywood. In Camelot's production, directed by Roy Von Rains Jr., James Leyson's nearly bare set throws the stage open except for the obligatory staircase stage right. The set handily accommodates a cast of some two dozen, easily becoming either the house on Sunset or Paramount Studios. Choreographer Sarah Gore fills the stage with energetic dancing, and the story gets a vintage vibe from Brian M. O'Connor's video projections. Six musicians off-stage ably deliver Karl Iverson's orchestrations. The score is Webber for better or worse, with moments as fine as Genise singing, "We gave the world/ New ways to dream!" and Monks and Gore (who plays Betty) making sparks in "Too Much in Love to Care." There are few hummable tunes, and Christopher Hampton and Don Black's lyrics are all over. "Let's Have Lunch" comes off fresh, while "This Time Next Year" sounds like you've heard it before even if you haven't. But the heart of the story — its juice — is the deadly dance between Joe and Norma. Joe is Odysseus backwards: He's trying not to go home. And Norma is a demented Calypso, plying him with champagne and caviar, new clothes and sex. Joe fails every test, getting in deeper, even after he and Betty begin to fall in love. Von Rains Jr. seems to see Joe as a rather sympathetic character caught up in a world he wasn't ready for — essentially a tragic figure. "Norma is no villain and Joe is anything but hapless," the director writes in his notes. "Sunset Boulevard" is a story in which the action is in these characters' interior worlds. Norma may not drive the action like a classic villain, but without her delusional ego there would be no story. And Joe is an amoral opportunist, making the wrong choice every time. He's at least as guilty as Norma, and he's playing with a full deck. And there's something troubling about the Norma-Joe relationship. In the film it's hard to picture handsome young Joe getting physical with aging Norma (actually, her age in the film is only about 50, or younger than, say, Julianne Moore or Elle Macpherson). Genise plays younger than Gloria Swanson. And Monks plays older than William Holden, thinner on top and thicker in the middle. Both give solid performances, but the thought of a romance between the two doesn't fill us with the weird frisson of the Swanson-Holden hookup. While a director is certainly free to put his spin on a story, a softening of these two monsters squanders tension and sacrifices the Gothic buzz one feels watching Wilder's film. To be clear, there are no real dead stretches in the production, but neither is there that fine edge of menace. "Sunset Boulevard" is grand spectacle, but this kinder, gentler version cuts out too much of the darkness at its sordid heart. Reach Medford freelance writer Bill Varble at [email protected]. By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 21, 2015 at 2:40 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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